Saturday, September 22, 2012

Lineup, Notes, News - KC (Correia) vs Dallas (Keuchel)

RHP Kevin Correia (11-9, 4.09) takes on LHP Dallas Keuchel (2-7, 4.97). Correia held the Astros to one run on four hits in six innings in his most recent outing against them on September 5th, and went seven shutout innings against the Cubs in his last start. Keuchel is a sinkerball guy that pitches to contact, usually down and away in the zone. If the Bucs go the opposite way, they should have some success, but getting hitters to roll over and weakly ground out is Keuchel's game, and the Pirates are quite capable of that kind of performance, too. The game starts at 7:05 and will be aired on Root Sports.

The Kid is back in the lineup, and The Fort gets his second consecutive start behind the dish as the Bucs try to snap a four game losing streak.

A win tonight by KC (11-9) would give the Pirates three pitchers (A.J. Burnett, 15-8, and James McDonald, 12-8) with at least 12 wins in a season for the first time since 1991 when John Smiley went 20-8, Zane Smith was 16-10 and Doug Drabek went 15-14.

Starling Marte has back-to-back two-hit games and has knocks in six of his last eight contests.

Jeff Karstens is still in the pen doghouse. The Pirate rotation against the Mets beginning Monday will be Kyle McPherson, Wandy Rodriguez, Jeff Locke and Kevin Correia. Sounds like the white flag is up and they're auditioning pitchers for next season.

Kevin McClatchy came out of the closet to Frank Bruni of the NY Times. He said “There’s no way I want to go into the rest of my existence and ever have to hide my personal life again.”

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